By The Numbers

I've been wondering how things have been going to for my council.  Today I got an email telling me that the 2021 Annual Report had been posted so I decided to take a look at it.  Since numbers mean little without context, I also took a look at the reports for 2019 and 2020.  Here is what I learned.  

2019

According to our 2019 Annual Report, Girl Scouts Louisiana East served 10,281 girls in 714 troops.  Our total revenue was $3,665,551 and our expenses were $3,581,814.  That means we operated in the black. Our cost per girl was $348.39.  

Of the 10,281 girls, 6,394 sold cookies, selling a total of 1,148,280 boxes.  This means that 62.1% of girls sold cookies and that they sold an average of 179.58 boxes each.  78% of our revenue was from product sales. 

Our council awarded 14 Gold Awards, 46 Silver Awards and 159 Bronze awards.  

This report covered the year ending 12/31/19 so Covid was not an issue.  

2020

In 2020, the Covid lockdowns were rumored during our cookie sale but did not happen until after the sale was complete.  

During 2020, our total revenue was $3,515,845 and our total expenses were $3,661,047.  We were operating in the red. Our council did not offer camp during the summer of 2020 and staff members were working remotely. While a few non-Girl Scout day camps were in operation, most kids were home during the summer but most went back to school, with masks, in the fall.  Our shop went from being a store you could drop  into to being closed and then operating on a pick-up basis.  Starting in the fall, troops were allowed to meet if cleaning and masking protocols were followed.  My troop began the year meeting outside.  

While program fees had been been 6% of revenue ($214,441) in 2019; in 2020 they were only 0.5% ($15,724), which is understandable considering that there were few programs offered. Shop revenue in 2019 was $133,323 or 4% of revenue; in 2020 it was $65,329 or 1.5%.  Contributions in 2019 totaled $193,343 or 5% of revenue; in 2020, contributions were down to $170,165 but that was still 5% of revenue.  Product sales in 2019 provided 78% of our revenue, or $2,846,076.  In 2020 they were 2,698,891 or 77% of revenue. 

The report does not mention total membership, but does say that 5,738 girls participated in the cookie program, which is 656 less than in 2019.  If the same percent of girls participated, it would mean that membership was 9239.  1,108,908 boxes of cookies were sold, or an average of 193 boxes per girl.  

The annual report breaks spending into three categories:  Management and General, Fundraising and Troops & Girl Programs.  In 2019, Troops and Girl Programs accounted for 74% of spending, Fundraising 6% and Management & General, 20%.  In 2020, only 69% was used for used for Troops and Girl Programming.  Fundraising increased to 10% and Management to 21%.  However, management costs were $37,000 more in 2020 than in 2019.  

The  2020 Annual Report did not mention higher awards.  I know some girls finished them before everything shut down.  

2021

In 2021, my council sold the headquarters buildings of the two legacy councils. They also sold one of our three camps.  They rented temporary office/shop space and the plan is to use the money to build a new headquarters that is centrally located and to service the different regions with a mobile store.  Improvements to our remaining camps are also slated.  I recently received an invitation to a Town Hall meeting to discuss capital improvement plans. 

The Covid-19 lockdowns happened just as our cookie sale in 2020 was wrapping up.  Usually about a month later is when we start early registration.  I do not know the effect Covid had on early registration.  In August 2021, much of our council suffered a hit from Hurricane Ida and schools were closed for several weeks.  

In 2021, the total revenue of Girl Scouts Louisiana East was $5,981,791, which included $2,262,697 for property sale.  They had some other non-ordinary income, namely a $370,355 PPP payment and $300,370 from insurance.  We had a tax credit of $206,114 and a general "other" category of $509,016.   Our expenses totaled $3,442,764. 

If you subtract the amount of the property sale from the revenue, you get revenue of $3,719,094.  Expenses were $3,442,764 so we were in the black.  Also, if you remove the property sale from revenue, product sales become 52% of revenue.  

It is hard to compare 2021 to other years because of all the "odd" revenue, such as PPP money and tax credits and insurance.  However, the revenue in 2020 from product sales was $2,698,891 and in 2021 it was only $1,946,587. Program fees recovered somewhat--up to $120,146 in 2021 as opposed to $15,724 in 2020.  Contributions were up as well--$205,064 in 2021 as opposed to $170165 in 2020. 

On the expense side, management was $24,691 less than in 2020, but $12,840 more than in 2019.    

Only 3125 girls participated in the cookie sale in 2021.  We had very limited booth sales.  However, 791,172 packages were sold for an average of 253 boxes per girl, a council record.  

The council awarded 51 Bronze Awards, 32 Silver Awards and 10 Gold Awards. 

The Annual report does not give membership numbers. I checked Guidestar to see what was reported to the IRS but 2019 was the latest report available.  

I tried checking the Wayback Machine to see how the number of staff people had changed over the years but the staff directory page was not saved.  

My Comments

I don't like seeing increased costs for management.  I understand that if the number of girls goes down, certain costs do not disappear in the same percentages.  As these are all very "high level" looks at the numbers, I can't say that the increase is unjustified, but it does raise my eyebrows.  Maybe it can be explained by having fulltime staffers salaries --salaries that were covered by the PPP--being billed to administration rather than to camp since the camps didn't operate, but I don't know that.  

I'm concerned about what this year will bring.  We will not have the costs associated with the sold camp, nor the revenue from its use.  Our numbers appear to be way down and I fear there is a two year cohort of girls who will never be Girl Scouts.  I'm concerned that some schools where we have always had strong programs may have lost the "old hands" in the last two years and that there won't be anyone to encourage the parents of Daisy-aged girls to get troops started.  My gut feeling, though I can't find proof, is that the number of recruiters (paid staff) has been cut.  While cutting administrative costs is good, if we don't have anyone working at setting up troops, are we starting a death spiral?  

I'm glad I'm not the council CEO.  I think the next couple of years are going to be tough ones, requiring leadership to balance lower income with higher costs to maintain the program.  I have my issues with the decision to close the camp but I understand it.  I hope Girl Scouts has a vibrant program when my future granddaughters are ready.